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The best free year-round activity for kids and parents
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A great place to start for ideas and info
Volunteering as a family is a wonderful way for parents to not only spend time with their kids but it teaches kids to give back to their community. When you volunteer as a family, it teaches your children that you care about them and others and it allows parents to teach their children to be thankful without having to say a word.
Every city has volunteering opportunities for families, especially in the summer and on weekends. A family doesn't need a huge commitment of time to volunteer as organizations are usually willing to work with your schedule.
If you want to spend more time with your kids while offering them the opportunity to help others, volunteering is a perfect answer. It is important to choose your families volunteering choice well, so it is something you will all be committed to. But, how do you begin? Here are five tips to get you and your family started on what will hopefully be a lifelong venture:
- Before talking with the family, do a bit of research. A great place to start is by reading The Busy Family's Guide to Volunteering: Doing Good Together
.This great book is filled with resources and information to help you find short and long term volunteer opportunities that will work for your family. It also has some wonderful suggestions to do together as a neighborhood.
- Discuss which type of activities and/or causes each family member is interested in.
Give each member to a chance to contribute, helping younger ones with suggestions such as working around animals.- write down all suggestions - Determine how much time each family member wants to commit. This works better if you already have a list of what type of volunteering everyone would like to do. Break the available time up – is the whole family available Saturday, what about after school for an hour two times a week?
- Choose an activity/cause that works for your family. Take the list of time and the list of volunteer choices and put them next to each other. What will work? Can you all go down and help in a soup kitchen, one night per week or spend a Saturday at the food bank handing out food, or cleaning up a nearby park?
- Keep at it! Keep kids involved by staying involved yourself. Make it a tradition to hit the ice cream parlor on the way home from a long day or put in a crock pot meal before you head out so you can all sit down together when you walk in.
Once you start volunteering as a family, keep an eye out for ways to support the causes your children believe in. If they love animals, not only can you all help out at your local animal shelter but you can foster puppies, teach a guide dog, take your dog to local nursing homes or hold a garage sale with the money going to their favorite animal cause. As a parent, you’ll be showing them there causes are important, that there are many ways to help and you’ll be nurturing your children to be lifelong volunteers.
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